presumption of her standing forward to lead the aggression, upon the independence of all free and polished states. Gracious God! Russia!-a power that was only half civilized-that, with all her colossal mass of physical strength, was still quite as much Asiatic as European-whose principles of policy, foreign and domestic, were completely despotic, and whose practices were almost altogether oriental and barbarous! In all these documents, there was, with a mighty number of general remarks, mixed up a wondrous affectation of honest principles-a great many words covering ideas that were not altogether clear and intelligible; or, if they happened to be so, only placing their own deformity in a more hideous and detestable light: but, for argument, or any thing like it, there was none to be found from the beginning to the end of them. They reasoned not; but they spoke one plain language to Spain and to Europe, and that language was "We have 100,000 hired mercenaries, and we will not stoop to reason with those whom we have determined to crush as slaves, or annihilate as freemen." Admirable was the frankness, with which this haughty language had been met by the Spanish government: the papers which it had sent forth were plain and laconic; they said:"We are millions of freemen, and will not stoop to reason with men who threaten to enslave us." They hurled back the threat to the quarter from which it issued, caring little whether it was from the Goth, the Hun, or the Calmuck; with firmness they met the craft of the Bohemian, and with courage the savage ferocity of the Tartar. If they found leagued against them the tyrants,

by whom the world was at present infested, they might console themselves with this reflection—that wherever there was an Englishman, either of the old world or of the new-wherever there was a Frenchman, with the exception of that little band which now swayed the destinies of France in opposi

tion to the wishes and interests of its gallant and liberal populationwherever there was a free heart or virtuous mind, there Spain had a natural and an unalienable friend.

Mr. Brougham went on to express his admiration of the mingled firmness and forbearance exhibited by the Spanish government, which, among so many provocations, had disdained to retaliate on its insulting enemies by giving utterance to accusations which might have been made against them. When, said he, the allied monarchs were pleased to adopt a system of interference with the internal policy of Spain-when they thought fit to descend to minute and paltry criticisms upon the whole course of her domestic government-when every sentence in their respective notes was a direct personal insult to every individual Spaniard, and when the most glaring attempts were made in their different manifestos to excite rebellion in the country, and to stir up one class of the community against the other: what would have been more natural for the Spanish government, than to have asked his Prussian majesty, to remember the many vows and promises which he had made some years ago to his own people, and to have suggested to him, that it would be more consistent with those promises to give his subjects a representative form of government, than to maintain at their cost, and almost to their

utter ruin, a large standing army, for the purpose of ravaging the territories, or putting down the liberties, of any neighbouring power? Might not Spain have asked the emperor of Austria, whether he, who now pretended to be so just, when the interests of Ferdinand were concerned, had acted with equal justice towards others? Whether, before he was generous to Ferdinand, he ought not to be just to England, and repay to her the whole, or a considerable part of the 20 millions he had borrowed of her in his day of distress. If the doctrine of interference in the internal concerns of neighbouring nations were at all admitted,-what could have been more rightful, in a free people, than to have asked him, how it happened, that his dungeons were filled with all that was noble, and accomplished, and virtuous, and patriotic in the Milanese?-to have called on him to account for the innocent blood, which he had shed in the north of Italy?-to have required at his hands satisfaction for the tortures inflicted in the vaults and caverns, where the flower of his subjects were now languishing to have demanded of him some explanation of that iron policy, by which he had consigned fathers of families, the most virtuous and exalted in Europe, not to exile or death, but to a merciless imprisonment for ten, fifteen, and twenty years-nay, even for life, without a knowledge of the charge against them, or of the crime for which they were punished? Even the emperor Alexander himself, tender and sensitive as he was at the sight of blood flowing within the precincts of a royal palace-a sight so monstrous, that, if his language could be credited, it had never before been seen in the his

tory of the world-even he might have been reminded of passages in history, calculated to lessen his astonishment, at least, if not to soothe his feelings; for the empe ror Alexander, if the annals of Russian story might be trusted, however pure in himself, and however happy in always having agents equally innocent, was nevertheless descended from an illustrious line of ancestors, who had, with exemplary uniformity, dethroned, imprisoned, and slaughtered, husbands, brothers, and children. Not that those enormities were to be imputed to the parents, or sisters, or consorts; but it did happen, that those exalted and near relations had never failed to reap the whole benefit of the atrocities, and had always failed to bring the perpetrators to justice. It was, however, painful to find, that a monarch, so enlightened as the king of France had shown himself on various occasions to be, should have yielded obedience, even for a time, to the arbitrary mandates of this tyrannic Junta. He had been persuaded by them and by the parasites by whom he was at present surrounded, to tell the world, that it was from the hands of a tyrant alone that a free people could hold a constitution. That accomplished prince could not but be aware, that all the wise and good men of former times differed with him in opinion upon this point. "Non in ulla civitate, nisi in qua summa potestas populi est, ullum domicilium libertas habet." Such was the language of Cicero ; of one, who to the wisdom of a great philosopher, added the experience of a great statesman, and who, living in times of danger, and of difficulty, and having to contend with the most formidable conspiracy to which the life

and liberty of social man were ever exposed, put forth only the vigour of his own genius, and of the law, and never thought of calling into his assistance the Allobroges, the Teutones, or the Scythians of his day; "and I now say," continued Mr. Brougham, "that if the king of France calls on either the modern Teutones or the modern Scythians to assist him in this unholy war, judgment will that moment go forth against him and his family, and the dynasty of Gaul will be changed at once and for ever." The learned gentleman then asked, what were the grounds on which the necessity of this war was defended. It was said to be undertaken, because an insurrection had broken out with success at Madrid. He denied this to be the fact. What was called an insurrection, was an attempt to restore the lawful constitution of the country. Let the pretext, however, be what it might, the real cause of the war was not hard to conjecture. It was not from hatred to Spain or Portugal, considered simply as Spain and Portugal, that the allied sovereigns were for marching their hordes into the Peninsula-it was not against freedom on the Ebro, or freedom on the Mincio, that they were making war: no, it was against freedom in the abstract wherever it was to be found-by whatever men it was enjoyed-by whatever checks it was securedand by whatever safeguards it was guaranteed. Freedom was the object of their most inveterate hate, and against freedom they were ready to employ every species both of fraud and force. They dreaded its institutions-they abhorred its spirit; all the benefits which it had conferred upon mankind, all the monuments which had been raised in its honour, all the miracles

which had been effected by its influence, they hated with the malignity of demons; for they were compelled to fear, and tremble at the very sound of its name. It was on this account, that, disguise it as they might, they could feel no real friendship for Great Britain. It was idle to suppose that these armed critics could be bounded in their views by any limits of time or of country. If there were any portion of territory in the neighbourhood of the emperor Alexander, which appeared peculiarly suited to his views, would he not soon be able to discover some flaw in its political institutions requiring his intervention, supposing it even to be a part of the Turkish government? Nay, if his imperial majesty, with his consistory of tyrants and armed critics, were met by the Ulemah, with all his tribe of learned Muftis, pleading that their government was of the most sacred and venerable description-that it had antiquity in its favour-that it was in full possession of "the conservative principle of social order”—that it was replete with grand truths,” -that it was "powerful and paralysed"-that it had never listened to "the fatal doctrines of a disorganized philosophy," and that it had never been visited by any such things as "dreams of fallacious liberty;" still these "three gentlemen of Verona" would not turn away, but would pry about for an avenue by which to enter into the territory in question, and if they could not find a way, would not be very scrupulous about making one; and the result would be, that, in three months from the time of deliberation, the emperor Alexander would be at Constantinople, or at Minorca; and that Austria and Prussia would be invited to look

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for an indemnity in any thing that England, or the king of England, might have to suit them. Resistance to this band of congregated despots was a matter of duty, and the duty of England was in consequence plain. It behoved us, however, to take care that we did not rush blindly into a war. An appeal to arms ought to be the last alternative we should try; but still it ought never to be so foreign to our thoughts as to be conceived impossible, or so foreign from our counsels as to take us unprepared.

The thunders of applause from both sides of the House, with which this speech was received, and which continued for some minutes after Mr. Brougham sat down, gave a most unequivocal attestation, both of the unanimous sentiments of the House, and of the oratorical power which produced so strong a manifestation of them. Sir Francis Burdett, sir J. Mackintosh, and Mr. Denman, followed on the same side, but with infinitely less effect. Mr. Canning, not having as yet been elected and returned a member of the House, was not present at the discussion. Mr. Peel was the only one of the ministers who spoke. He regretted, that Mr. Brougham should have used too strong expressions, and too sarcastic a severity against powers who were in alliance with us, and who did not deserve the sweeping invective with which they had been loaded. The recent conduct of Russia towards Turkey proved the injustice of the accusation respecting the spirit of aggression by which she was animated for nothing could be more manifest, than that her policy of late had been marked by the greatest forbearanee, and by a desire rather to avoid than to pro

mote war.

With respect to the Spanish question, the right hon. gentleman spoke to the same purport as lord Liverpool did in the House of Lords; though upon the whole, with even more reserve, and greater caution of language. He thought, that the grounds assigned by France for her interference were not adequate; but, supposing himself to be a Frenchman, he could not tell in what light the question might then present itself. There was still, he conceived, a chance, that peace might be preserved: and our duty was, to maintain a strict neutrality, and to mediate between angry parties, so as, if possible, to prevent the commencement of a war, the termination of which no man could foresee.

The Address was carried unanimously.

The favourable feelings expressed by the ministers towards Spain, and the still greater liberality of sentiment so unequivocally manifested in the House of Commons by the enthusiastic reception of Mr. Brougham's sarcastic eloquence and vehement invective, produced general satisfaction throughout the country, and excited deep attention in every part of Europe. At Madrid, the intelligence of the discusssion was received with exultation; the speeches of lord Liverpool and Mr. Brougham were translated into Spanish, and were widely circulated, wherever, either in the old world or the new, that language was spoken. Their effect at Paris, was no less visible in the terms of dislike and disrespect with which lord Liverpool, and still more Mr. Canning, were mentioned in the Chamber of Deputies, by the violent partisans of Villèle and Chateaubriand.